Music Server- SSD drives

PettyOfficer - an SSD does not "run" in the conventional hard drive sense; it has no moving parts. I haven't heard of the faster read/access speeds being linked to failure. They do alow for less writes as mentioned, meaning repeated Move, Copy, Save, Delete can cause failure sooner than a typical spinning platter HDD.

With current price and size limitations they are best used for operating system and application drive only. My collection is also about 2 titles per 1GB at 16-44.1 res FLAC. I run an old laptop with 250GB HDD to fit that - reliable SSD that size would cost more than the laptop :-)

The touchscreen server here has an SSD of moderate size for the OS and music server software, with music stored externally. It can be a great way to go. Achieving top notch performance is an entirely different matter.

Asking for some Rumor Control! Rumor: SSD's burn out sooner
due to their faster running rate. Any truth to this? I read
it somewhere, don't know if it is true or not! Just asking.

Although I don't use any solid state drives in my system, it is my understanding that the main advantage of SSDs is when you use them for the computer's operating system drive. The explanations for this are somewhat vague, but many swear by the sonic improvements derived.

F1a...

That would depend on which format you rip the CD's to. Assuming FLAC, off the top of my head you'll need probably 90+ gigs of storage space. If ripping into WAV, 150+ is probably your minimum number. These are guesstimates, but probably good baselines to start with.

Personally, since SSD's are quite a bit more pricey, I'd have a smaller SSD for the server to use for playback to your DAC, while having a much larger HDD as an external drive to actually store the music.

I know nothing, but am curious...
How big an SSD do i need to store 200 CDs? TIA!

besides noise and heat the main benefit of a ssd is the lack of vibrations. a hd spins quite fast and cause a lot of vibrations!

Luc, Music stored on hard drive has no timing - only data. As long as interface is faster than required data rate it will be OK. Data rate required for standard 16/44.1 CD is 1.4Mb/s while USB 2.0 is running at about 240Mb/s (wasting about 50% of 480Mb/s on protocol). It all goes thru buffers anyway.

Great thing about SSD for music server other than lack of noise and heat (that Xti16 already mentioned) is reliability. SSD has limited number of writes but unlimited number of reads and no mechanical components. Firewire being expansion bus (vs USB being peripheral bus) is that it has sustained rate of 400Mb/s and doesn't require main processor for transfers the way USB does. I use it because my server is also my main computer, but with dedicated server it doesn't even matter - anything will do.

No noise - Generates less heat.